M2M Has Transitioned to a Strategic Opportunity
Yankee Group forecasts more than 313 million active cellular M2M connections by 2016.

BOSTON, May 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- More and more companies are beginning to see the strategic value in machine-to-machine (M2M) opportunities, and the industry is expected to nearly triple in the next three years. Yankee Group's recent report, "Handicapping the Battle for End-to-End M2M Market Supremacy," outlines the major players in the M2M market and who's winning and losing the battle.

Highlights from the report include:

The battle for end-to-end (E2E) supremacy will be hotly contested. Multiple industry giants are battling for coveted prime positions within the market, and M2M adoption will accelerate from niche to mainstream status.

The global race for E2E M2M value chain leadership will boil down to two types of companies: Those with large-scale network connectivity footprints and those with experience designing applications and executing complex IT integration work.

Enterprise IT software companies should move quickly to solidify their M2M strategies. Enterprise software companies are beginning to show their cards related to M2M strategy, and they should accelerate this process. Yankee Group recommends that brands such as HP, IBM and SAP make tactical acquisitions of software platform specialists to enhance their existing intellectual property and gain vital institutional knowledge to position for long-term M2M growth and profit.

"In many regards it is presently difficult to discern the future winners and losers of the E2E M2M market given the similarities of current staffing levels, partnership resources, developer resources and vertical go-to-market capabilities of Tier 1 mobile network operators," said Brian Partridge, Yankee Group Vice President and author of the report. "In the end, we believe that the profit and share leaders will be those mobile operators that can exhibit the most effective combination of internal and external M2M specific assets, cross-network collaborations to support global deployments and go-to-market execution within their respective geographies."

About Yankee Group Yankee Group, a division of The 451 Group, is the preeminent research and advisory firm equipping companies to profit in a mobile world. The core of our content is proprietary research and analytics on the attitudes, behaviors and usage patterns of mobile users. We provide a range of actionable data, insights and advice to marketing, strategy and product executives driving the mobility revolution in leading companies worldwide. Visit www.yankeegroup.com.